PHILOSOPHY - From the Pre-Socratics to Post-Structuralism

Philosophy: From the Pre-Socratics to Post-Structuralism offers a comprehensive, rigorous, and deeply engaging journey through the vast landscape of Western intellectual history. Tracing the evolution of human thought across millennia, this volume provides readers with a structured, lucid, and insightful guide to the foundational questions that have shaped our understanding of reality, existence, reason, and society. The narrative unfolds across five major thematic and historical eras, moving seamlessly from the dawn of rational inquiry to the complex philosophical debates of the modern world. It begins in antiquity with the transition from mythic worldviews to rational discourse (logos), charting the cosmological inquiries of the Pre-Socratics, the ethical turn of Socrates, the systemic frameworks of Plato and Aristotle, and the practical wisdom of the Hellenistic traditions. Moving into the Middle Ages, the work investigates the dynamic synthesis of classical philosophy and theological revelation, highlighting the rich intellectual exchanges among Early Christian, Byzantine, Islamic, Jewish, and Scholastic thinkers during periods of profound crisis and renewal. The journey continues through the Early Modern transformation, detailing the radical shifts sparked by the Scientific Revolution, the emergence of rationalism and empiricism, the rise of political modernity through social contract theory, and Immanuel Kant’s monumental critical turn. Finally, the text explores the turbulent intellectual currents of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, examining German Idealism, Positivism, Marxism, the "Philosophy of Suspicion," Phenomenology, Hermeneutics, Existentialism, and the structural and post-structural movements that redefined contemporary thought. Written with academic clarity and narrative precision, Leonardo Becampelli bridges the gap between historical context and enduring philosophical relevance. Philosophy: From the Pre-Socratics to Post-Structuralism stands as an indispensable reference for scholars, students, and lifelong learners seeking to grasp the long arc of human thought and the essential concepts that continue to define our world.